1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to magnetic tape recorders and to subassemblies utilized therein, particularly with respect to recorders adapted for multiple track recording using a single track head which is transversely movable with respect to the recording tape.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Data recording cartridges and recorders adapted for their use are disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,692,225 (von Behren). In the cartridge there disclosed, a enclosure together with an endless flexible belt in frictional contact with the tape on both reel hubs for bidirectionally driving the tape, including rapid accelerations and decelerations, such as are encountered in digital data recording and playback. Recorders adapted to use such data cartridges originally employed fixed, multitrack heads which were complex, expensive and difficult to maintain in proper alignment.
To eliminate the multitrack heads, U.S. Pat. No. 313,143 (Zarr) disclosed a head positioning mechanism by which a single track head could be transversely positioned with respect to the width of the recording tape to enable recording and playback of any of a plurality of parallel tracks. While such a system operates entirely satisfactorily, it has recently been thought advantageous to reduce the size of the data recording cartridge and accordingly the recorder in which the cartridge is used. Simple miniaturization of the head positioning mechanism of the Zarr patent has not proven feasible, and so the head positioning mechanism has been redesigned for use with the smaller data cartridge recorder.